1940 Packard 120 Convertible Restoration

[JHT67]

Amazing, crazy, and scary. When getting into something like this how do you estimate the amount of work your going to have to do? Do you even have a thought that it could be this bad? What is awesome is there is obviously no doubt you can fix it.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by JHT67

Amazing, crazy, and scary. When getting into something like this how do you estimate the amount of work your going to have to do? Do you even have a thought that it could be this bad? What is awesome is there is obviously no doubt you can fix it.

I didn't know it would be this bad going in, only saw a few pictures before the car was delivered. It looked rough in the pics but I had no idea that every piece of metal around the bottom 6" would have to be replaced. Definitely no way to estimate the time involved when it's this bad, especially since the original panels are so far gone that making accurate patterns is very difficult.

[duallyjams]

Originally Posted by theastronaut

I didn't know it would be this bad going in, only saw a few pictures before the car was delivered. It looked rough in the pics but I had no idea that every piece of metal around the bottom 6" would have to be replaced. Definitely no way to estimate the time involved when it's this bad, especially since the original panels are so far gone that making accurate patterns is very difficult.

but you are really enjoying the challenge

[Russell Ashley]

I don't know if he is enjoying it or not, but I am definitely enjoying seeing his work.

[Advanced Design]

Outstanding work! Curious, did the owner have any idea the body was in this bad of shape?

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by duallyjams

but you are really enjoying the challenge

Most days.

Originally Posted by Russell Ashley

I don't know if he is enjoying it or not, but I am definitely enjoying seeing his work.

Thanks!!

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Outstanding work! Curious, did the owner have any idea the body was in this bad of shape?

Thanks, the owner bought it as a driver and had no idea. He started fixing minor issues and kept finding more problems.

[theastronaut]

I had the floor braces sandblasted to remove the rust and started welding in the reinforcement plates and bars.






The owner had the original running boards stripped, then sent them to Hunley Acuff to vulcanize new rubber over the metal. We were very impressed with the way they turned out.

[duallyjams]

They must be awesome if they impressed you.

[MP&C]

John, I have a set of RB for a 40 Chevy (gasser build) we need to send to them as well. Do they need the running boards in bare metal or epoxy primer or??

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by duallyjams

They must be awesome if they impressed you.

I don't see how anyone could do any better, they're that nice.

Originally Posted by MP&C

John, I have a set of RB for a 40 Chevy (gasser build) we need to send to them as well. Do they need the running boards in bare metal or epoxy primer or??

Not sure, these are bare metal on the back side. The owner sent them so I haven't talked to the guy that did them myself. I would think epoxy would be better though to keep rust from forming under the rubber.

[Low Elco]

I'm in! Great to see more of y'all's excellent work.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

I'm in! Great to see more of y'all's excellent work.

Thanks for following along!



Started cutting out the left rear inner wheel well rust. This was the better side,











Made a new inner flange.

[theastronaut]

Started on the outer panel. I bolted the fender in place to mark the correct shape.




Outer edge folded over and shaped, then welded in.





Upper half made and welded in.

[dantimdad]

pics aren't there

[dantimdad]

Nevermind.

[Free Candy Inside]

You do awesome work. Ciol you are bringing this thing back to life. I have a 52 250 I picked up a couple months ago!

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by Free Candy Inside

You do awesome work. Ciol you are bringing this thing back to life. I have a 52 250 I picked up a couple months ago!

Thanks!! Nice looking '52!

[theastronaut]

Started the front floor pans this week. The owner brought a set of pans made by Classic2Current Fabrication when he delivered the car . They would work ok for patch panels if you aren't picky but they're nowhere near close enough to use as full replacement panels. Their patterns for the beadwork was laid out wrong, plus they didn't take much time to stay on the pattern they laid out. They were also missing the recessed areas for the body mounts. After taking a closer look at them I decided to make my own instead of reworking their pans.


Transmission cover laid over the C2C floor pan. Its not even close to being useable around the trans area. There were other issues too.




The original passenger side floor pan hadn't been cut out yet so I was able to trace over the stampings to make a rough pattern.





Rough pattern transferred to translucent paper. The L/R floor pans are mirrored so I can use the same pattern for both sides.




Transferred to metal and mocked up to check the location of the body mount dimples.




Marked the area to stretch with the plannishing hammer. Pre-stretching the beaded areas keeps distortion to a minimum, especially with these 1" wide beads that want to pull a lot of metal from the sides. The bead roller doesn't have to work as hard either, there is a very noticeable difference in the amount of force needed to tighten the dies together.




After stretching the metal with the plannishing hammer. Looks like it's raised too much but the bead roller will pull the metal back into shape.




After rolling one of the beads. Some distortion but nowhere near as much compared to not pre-stretching. This was also before detailing the ends of the beads, which helps level out the panel as well.




I cut down a piece of 1" ID tubing and smoothed the edge to use as a finishing tool at the ends of the beads. The bead roller only shapes the sides of the beads; there's nothing to shape the ends. This "closes" the ends of the beads and makes them look finished, and also flattens the metal around the ends so the panel is flat.






After finishing the ends of the beads with the pipe tool. The panel is much flatter now, even across multiple beads.

[yahoos]

Wow, Impressive as always

[Advanced Design]

Very nice work! I like the translucent paper idea for the mirror image.

[MP&C]

John, maybe when you're done you can sell your pattern to C2C so they can get their stampings corrected!

Nice job on the beads. I use the e-wheel to pre-stretch and it always seems to be a guessing game as to when it's enough. What do you use as an indicator to determine the stopping point for pre-stretch?

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by yahoos

Wow, Impressive as always

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Very nice work! I like the translucent paper idea for the mirror image.

Thanks guys!

Originally Posted by MP&C

John, maybe when you're done you can sell your pattern to C2C so they can get their stampings corrected!

Nice job on the beads. I use the e-wheel to pre-stretch and it always seems to be a guessing game as to when it's enough. What do you use as an indicator to determine the stopping point for pre-stretch?

From what I've seen, they offer free floor pans (just pay shipping and handling! ) if you send them patterns for a car they don't already have patterns for. I think I'll pass on that offer...


I ususally use English wheel for pre-stretching too, and like using it better but with the extra depth of the 1" beads I didn't have tight enough bottom wheel to get the amount of stretch I wanted. So this is the first time I've tried it with the planishing hammer. I need to polish the dies and lower the air pressure to get a smoother finish before doing any beads that would show. The floors will be shot with Raptor Liner so these were ok like they are.

I did a test panel to get an idea of how much to pre-stretch, eyeballing how much of a "bump" I was making compared to the size of a finished bead. Flattening the ends of the beads with the pipe tool seems to change how you pre-stretch the ends of the beads too, you don't need to stretch as far out in the corners of the pattern.

[MP&C]

Originally Posted by theastronaut

I did a test panel to get an idea of how much to pre-stretch, eyeballing how much of a "bump" I was making compared to the size of a finished bead. Flattening the ends of the beads with the pipe tool seems to change how you pre-stretch the ends of the beads too, you don't need to stretch as far out in the corners of the pattern.

I think the process of forming the beads does more pulling in from the sides than from the ends. Thanks for the insight, always good to get another's perspective to see what I'm doing wrong..

[theastronaut]

Finished up most of the work on the front 2/3 floor pans. Still need to make the rear floors and pans under the rear seat.

Made patterns for the other floor sections. I only had the pictures we took of the car in Dillard GA to go by.




Battery door cut out.




Been slack at taking progress pics, so I only have the finished pan.







The original battery cover door was missing it's retaining tab so I made a new one and welded it on.

[theastronaut]

Front passenger side pan. This side had an extra cut out for a small transmission inspection cover.










I didn't show the body mount area on the drivers side pan earlier. Made it the same way, pre-stretched then used the bead roller. I used a 5/8" round bead to make the straight lines and the 1/4" offset dies. I spaced one of the offset dies out to match the rounder 5/8 bead.



Distortion from pre-stretching.




Both pans finished, ready for final trimming and fitting.






Compared with the C2C pans.